Telephone kiosk

This view shows the telephone kiosk which
was installed in 1945 in order to provide communications from the ruins during
the visit of General de Gaulle. This telephone was not present at the time of
the massacre on 10 June 1944 and was later installed on the Rue Emile Desourteaux in the position shown. In
the 1940's public
telephones in the street were relatively rare in rural France and normally people
had to go into the Post Office building (known as, "La Post") in order to make calls. In France today, telephone kiosks are
still often located within the Post Office building and in this case payment is made over the
counter at the time of use (which obviously means that the Post Office has to be
open at the time). Notice that in this case the user had an insulated platform on
which to stand, but was left exposed to the
weather whilst making the call. The
Post Office building itself is to the left and rear of this
view on the other side of the Rue Emile Desourteaux.